During the first meeting with this student, I knew that she was going to challenge me. She shared with me that she has a learning disability specific to mathematics and short-term memory of numbers and concepts. She had avoided math at all costs until she could do so no longer. I challenged myself to find ways to make her feel welcomed, like she belonged and to believe in herself.

Our first meeting was all about getting to know her and allowing her to share her story and goals with me. I want students to know that I believe they can succeed and getting to know them is a valuable tool in helping our students believe in themselves.  I told her that I believed in her and that we could do this.

When we started working on the math concepts needed for this course I found that I would need to draw on her strengths and interests to help her retain the content being taught.  We had to find creative ways for math to “stick”! She owned her own exercise business..  I did a little research about how to relate math to exercise.   She would share with me her assignments and struggles and we would work together to combine her love and knowledge of exercise to help her understand and feel confident in the material.

We worked on different studying strategies that worked well with her learning style.  I shared how taking a short walk before a test or quiz engaged the hippocampus, sitting on a yoga ball will help her focus and other study tips as well.   Using the techniques and the study tools we discussed she was able to retain the knowledge needed to do well on her tests and quizzes. She was able to pass this class, with a four-point!

Teaching in a community college gives us access to a diverse population of students.  To help these students succeed and become engaged global citizens we do whatever we can to help them believe they belong and they can reach their goals.  We also need to find out how they learn best. Students like this come along many times in our careers and teach us valuable lessons.  These are the challenges that are worth taking.